Marc Blitzstein

Songwriter ("Mack the Knife"), composer, pianist, publisher and author, educated at the University of Pennsylvania, the Curtis Institute, and the Acad. der Kuenste in Berlin. He studied with Alexander Siloti, Rosario Scalero, Nadia Boulanger, and Arnold Schoenberg. He was awarded two grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, and one each from the Ford Foundation and the Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded a "Page One" from the Newspaper Guild, and received an award from the American Aeronautical Institute. At fifteen, he was a piano soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Serving with the US Army Air Corps in World War II, he later founded Arrow Music, and served as its vice president. He joined ASCAP in 1939, and his chief musical collaborator was Kurt Weill. His song compositions include "Nickel Under the Foot", "The Cradle Will Rock", "Art for Art's Sake", "Francey", "Pirate Jenny", "Barbara's Song", "Army Song", "The Liffey Waltz", "One Kind Word", and "I Wish It So".